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Fiamma Says the Luxe Ingredients Never Went Away

<a href="http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/fiamma/">Fiamma</a> got a fair amount of heat last week, from Grub Street and <a href="http://eater.com/archives/2008/02/fw_total_bs.php">other food sites</a>, about a reduced menu. But B.R. Guest &#151; which did not respond to Grub Street&#8217;s requests for comments on the menu until yesterday &#151; vehemently disagrees. &ldquo;No one had updated the Website,&rdquo; says owner Steve Hanson. &ldquo;They just got lazy.&rdquo; We&rsquo;d hate to be in their shoes now! Fiamma chef Fabio Trabocchi, meanwhile, explains that the confusion also lay in the fact that the Website wasn&rsquo;t showing his daily specials or updating the tasting menu. &#8220;If you came in and ordered here, it&rsquo;s the same amount of selections; you can choose from any part of the menu. It&rsquo;s the same amount of dishes, just listed in a different way,&rdquo; Trabocchi says. And those <em>luxe</em> ingredients we thought were missing from the menu? Not so, says Trabocchi. &ldquo;We are using foie gras, truffles, Wagyu beef, ossabaw pig, and Grimaud Farm duck.&rdquo; (The langoustines, which we also mentioned as having gone missing, are out of season, Trabocchi explains.) Unfortunately for Fiamma, even a full menu can't sate complaining diners like Nick Paumgarten of <em>The New Yorker</em>.
<strong>Earlier</strong>: <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/food/2008/02/fiammas_menu_a_fraction_of_its.html">Fiamma&rsquo;s Menu a Fraction of Its Former Self</a>

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Fiamma got a fair amount of heat last week, from Grub Street and other food sites, about a reduced menu. But B.R. Guest  which did not respond to Grub Street’s requests for comments on the menu until yesterday  vehemently disagrees. “No one had updated the Website,” says owner Steve Hanson. “They just got lazy.” We’d hate to be in their shoes now! Fiamma chef Fabio Trabocchi, meanwhile, explains that the confusion also lay in the fact that the Website wasn’t showing his daily specials or updating the tasting menu. “If you came in and ordered here, it’s the same amount of selections; you can choose from any part of the menu. It’s the same amount of dishes, just listed in a different way,” Trabocchi says. And those luxe ingredients we thought were missing from the menu? Not so, says Trabocchi. “We are using foie gras, truffles, Wagyu beef, ossabaw pig, and Grimaud Farm duck.” (The langoustines, which we also mentioned as having gone missing, are out of season, Trabocchi explains.) Unfortunately for Fiamma, even a full menu can't sate complaining diners like Nick Paumgarten of The New Yorker.